They compared the number of units of plasma distributed to U.S. hospitals from blood banks on a per patient basis to the number of reported COVID-19 deaths per hospital admission across the country.
After analysing two datasets the researchers generated a model that suggests the COVID-19 case fatality rate decreased by 1.8 percentage points for every 10-percentage point increase in the rate of plasma use but other factors like changes in the average age of hospitalized patients, and the emergence of new variants of the COVID-19-causing coronavirus also influence the mortality rate.
Even the clinical trials with negative results used plasma mainly as an antiviral treatment did not explore its effect late in the course of COVID-19.
So, this study urges physicians, policymakers, and regulator to consider the totality of the available evidence including this study findings for making decisions about convalescent plasma use in individual COVID-19 patients.
Source: Medindia
